Daniel Branch

Daniel Branch lives in Paris with his girlfriend Laura, although at heart he remains a proud Yorkshireman, having been born and raised in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax. He continues to love returning to this part of the world whenever the opportunity arises and exploring the local sites where he had so many of his early birding experiences. Specifically, he loves visiting Soil Hill, his birding patch of nearly 20 years.

Having been gifted a small pocket book of birds by his father at the age of five, as a means to keep him occupied during family holidays, Daniel has been hooked on the world of birding from an early age. This infatuation with birds was further developed and refined during his four years living and working at the Spurn Bird Observatory on the East Coast of Yorkshire, before becoming a freelance ornithologist and using his income to travel for birds as much as possible. This birding journey has ultimately led him to join the Birdquest team.

Daniel is remarkably well-travelled and already has extensive birding experience in over 30 countries and all seven continents. Countries he knows particularly well include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Uganda, Malawi, Madagascar, Oman, India and Thailand.

The birds of South America are close to his heart, and he has already visited the continent over 20 times, including multiple extended visits to Southeast and Northeast Brazil for fieldwork in both the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado biomes. His studies have included important work on the Critically Endangered Alagoas Antwren.

Daniel always relishes the challenge of bringing elusive species out of their hiding places. This is why he considers antpittas and tapaculos his favourite Neotropical families. It is with great pride that many of his tapaculo photos now feature on the species front pages on eBird.